Fake: Georgian Snipers Shot Maidan Demonstrators

The fourth anniversary of Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution is not only an important historical milestone for the country; it is also a significant disinformation opportunity for the Kremlin propaganda machine.

Vesti nedeli (News of the Week), a weekly current affairs show on the state run Rossiya 1 television network and its presenter, Russia’s main spin doctor and TV commentator Dimitry Kiselyov took full advantage of the anniversary to claim the Maidan demonstrations were organized by Americans and the more than 100 protesters who lost their lives were shot by hired Georgian snipers.

Website screenshot vesti.ru

For Mr. Kiselyov, the Ukrainian demonstrations were not protests against government corruption and impunity, but such that “brought on a bloody putsch and a civil war”. Kiselyov rattles off a list of what he says the revolution has wrought – shattered economy, reduced salaries, collapsing currency, lack of foreign investment, degrading health and education systems – completely ignoring such salient details as Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Russian army’s role in the Donbas war or Russia’s trade blockade against Ukraine that continue to negatively impact on the country’s development and progress.

Micalessin’s film is based on the “sensational admission by three Georgian mercenaries” – Alexander Revazishvili, Koba Nergadze and Zalogi Kvarateskelia, who Micalessin claims were sent by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to participate in Ukrainian opposition activities. (The Maidan shootings took place in February 2014, Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidential term ended in November 2013. Ed)

Micalessin uses video footage of a press conference featuring Mamulashvili and Brian Boyenger as implied proof of their participation in the shootings. He does not mention that the press conference took place on February 24, 2016 and was devoted to the Georgian National Legion and its role in the war in eastern Ukraine. Mamulashvili , the Legion commander says that he was not in Ukraine during the Maidan revolution. Boyenger said he was previously in Ukraine in 2015 to train volunteers.

The film is filled with inaccuracies in the timeline of the shootings that took place on February 20, 2014. It features a video uploaded to YouTube by Konstantin Piontkovsky filmed shortly after the killing of Maidan activist Volodymyr Melnychuk. Someone is heard asking, where were they shooting from, from the Ukraina hotel, someone answers. Security camera footage showed that Melnychuk was killed by fire from the Ukrainian National Bank building.

The Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s office expressed surprise that Micalessin did not contact any Ukrainian officials for his film. According to the offices’s Special Investigations Department chief Serhiy Horbatiuk, the men named in the video were never in Ukraine. Their claims that they were shooting at both sides, the police and at demonstrators, are inaccurate and contradict all investigations and existing eyewitness testimony, Horbatiuk said.

Screenshot @Konstantin Piontkovsky

Website screenshot 5.ua

One of the Georgian snipers says they did not get direct orders to fire on anyone, another says such orders were issued, one says they stayed in a hotel in a southwestern area of Kyiv, another says they were based in a hotel on the Maidan. Two of the alleged snipers speak Georgian, the third speaks flawless Russian without any hint of a Georgian accent.